Destroying missiles, aircraft, re-entry vehicles and other targets falls into three primary classifications: “hit-to-kill” vehicles, blast fragmentation warheads, and kinetic energy rod warheads.
“Hit-to-kill” vehicles are typically launched into a position proximate a re-entry vehicle or other target via a missile such as the Patriot, THAAD or a standard Block IV missile. The kill vehicle is navigable and designed to strike the re-entry vehicle to render it inoperable. Countermeasures, however, can be used to avoid the “hit-to-kill” vehicle. Moreover, biological warfare bomblets and chemical warfare submunition payloads are carried by some threats and one or more of these bomblets or chemical submunition payloads can survive and cause heavy casualties even if the “hit-to-kill” vehicle accurately strikes the target.
Blast fragmentation type warheads are designed to be carried by existing missiles. Blast fragmentation type warheads, unlike “hit-to-kill” vehicles, are not navigable. Instead, when the missile carrier reaches a position close to an enemy missile or other target, a pre-made band of metal on the warhead is detonated and the pieces of metal are accelerated with high velocity and strike the target. The fragments, however, are not always effective at destroying the target and, again, biological bomblets and/or chemical submunition payloads survive and cause heavy casualties.
The textbook by the inventor hereof, R. Lloyd, “Conventional Warhead Systems Physics and Engineering Design,” Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics (AIAA) Book Series, Vol. 179, ISBN 1-56347-255-4, 1998, incorporated herein by this reference, provides additional details concerning “hit-to-kill” vehicles and blast fragmentation type warheads. Chapter 5 of that textbook proposes a kinetic energy rod warhead.
The two primary advantages of a kinetic energy rod warhead are that 1) it does not rely on precise navigation as is the case with “hit-to-kill” vehicles and 2) it provides better penetration than blast fragmentation type warheads. The above technology developed by the inventor hereof can be modified and adapted to destroy heat and kinetic energy rounds that are designed to defeat tanks or armored personnel carriers.
One of the most serious incoming threats to targets such as tanks, armored personnel carriers, and the like, is the heat (shaped charge) round or the kinetic energy round (KER). The KER is the most difficult to destroy or deflect and is typically ½ inch to 1 inch in diameter and approximately 30 inches long. The KER travels at approximately 1.6 km/second and is designed to pierce the armor of tanks and armored personnel carriers. Prior active protection systems (APS) and methods to counter incoming threats, such as the KER or heat round, include small “hit-to-kill” vehicles and conventional blast fragmentation-type warheads. However, these prior systems and methods are typically ineffective against the incoming threat because the “hit-to-kill” vehicles often miss the intended target and the blast or fragmentation-type warheads are typically ineffective at destroying or altering the flight path of the KER or heat round. This is because about 97% of the fragments from a conventional isotropic blast fragmentation type warhead are ejected away from the KER or heat round. Since the KER or heat round is so small, most of the fragments are wasted, hence, this type of conventional warhead lacks the overall hits required to destroy a KER or heat round.